Visualising Darwin 6 Sep 2009 PZ Macrabbit has already mentioned this, but I thought I’d pile on: it’s a Javascript utility that shows you how Darwin edited the six editions of the Origin over the course of his life, by Ben Fry, who lets you download the program Processing (now that’s a name!) for free. Also, the Wellcome Institute has a nice visualisation of the tree of life. A more technical one is here. Oh, and then there’s this: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qabl5eIba2g&hl=en&fs=1&] HT: Dangerous Intersection Evolution History
History Irish history of science 18 Sep 2009 The deputy prime minister, or Tanaiste, of Ireland, has made a slight gaffe: She said the IDA would be marketing Ireland as the innovation island — “like Einstein explaining his theory of evolution”. After that, she said that Ireland would win sport like Darwin discovering gravity, and sing in Eurovision… Read More
Biology A series of posts on Categories in systematics 7 May 20257 May 2025 They are on Substack of course, and I forgot to link to them here, so: Read More
Book My species definitions reader is accepted for publication 15 Aug 2007 I have a book forthcoming, Species definitions: a sourcebook from antiquity to today, which gives and commentates definitions of “species” in logic and biology for 2,500 years, from Plato to Templeton and beyond. It’s designed as a reader for scholars to see how the notion[s] have evolved separately in the… Read More
The huddled masses you see weeping to themselves outside the Welcome Trust are the mycologists and botanists, who are feeling rather ignored. What’s so interesting about these latecomer animals finally dragging themselves onto dry land, eh?